A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems for interconnecting computers, and in particular to systems satisfying the perceived desirability of having computers readily available for student and teacher access in school settings. The present invention specifically addresses issues of cost, safety, loss prevention and infrastructure limitations that currently severely limit student and teacher access to computer technology, xe2x80x9celectronic textbooksxe2x80x9d and the Internet.
2. Background and Conventional Art
Presently severe limitations exist in schools with respect to computer access by students. These limitations include the relatively high cost of hardware, the lack of sufficient electrical power distribution capabilities, and the lack of sufficient communication network distribution capabilities in existing school buildings.
Access to computers and to computer networks in schools is generally provided in the form of computers installed in classroom settings or xe2x80x9claboratoryxe2x80x9d settings consisting of a number of computers located in one room with access and usage shared by several classes of students at different times. Both laboratory and classroom settings are considered viable for different uses; neither is necessarily preferable.
A typical classroom will have a single duplex electrical power outlet on each wall, with the possible exception of an outside window wall (which may have no outlets at all). With such insufficient power distribution, few electrical devices can be used in a classroom without the use of extension cords containing multiple power outlets, which can easily become safety hazards due to possible overloading, improper location, etc. The addition of power distribution requires costly professional installation by knowledgeable tradesmen and considerable disruption unless performed during non-school hours. Additionally, the installation of new power distribution outlets at fixed locations limits future options in classroom arrangements.
Computer network distribution in the classroom is typically more limited than electrical power distribution, with access typically being provided to a single location (i.e., device) in the classroom. Further distribution to additional devices would require the use of a hub device and cabling to each additional computer device desired to be wired for network access.
The setting up of a computer in any location requires one cable for electrical power and another cable to provide network data signals. When multiple computers in a classroom are necessary and the number of computers needed is greater than the existing classroom facility can handle, and/or the desired placement of the computers prevents access to existing power and network distribution, the difficulties are compounded.
Battery-powered computing devices are not currently a feasible option because of their higher cost and the increased amount of time, effort and cost required to maintain reliable functioning of such computing devices. Battery life is limited, and the length of time a battery can power a device before requiring a recharge is even more significantly limited. Thus, batteries would need to be frequently recharged and periodically replaced, adding labor and material costs to the cost of providing computer access in the classroom. A further shortcoming to such an approach is the fact that rechargeable batteries contain hazardous material that may be dangerous in a classroom where younger children may have access to such batteries, as well as being detrimental to the environment.
The use of standard multiple extension cords to provide power to convention desktop computers is a potential danger to students and staff for a variety of reasons, including potential fire hazards caused by improper connection of excessive numbers of computers to a single power source outlet, as well as the potential for accidents caused by potentially dangerous locating of power cords across walking paths.
To access a network, a second cable to the computer is needed. The current industry standard is the four-wire twisted pair 10/100BASE-T Ethernet cable with RJ45 terminations. Alternatives to the Ethernet cable, such as infrared and microwave wireless technologies, are not as reliable, safe, secure or as easy to administer. Such wireless technologies also are believed to present potential health risks to humans during prolonged exposure, which especially counsels against use of such potentially damaging technology in operating environments inhabited by children. Infrared signals also are sensitive to directional orientation and limited as to distance, diminishing their effectiveness in a classroom environment with high exposure to daylight.
Additional concerns are theft and security of installed school computer systems. Stand-alone computers are particularly at risk of being stolen. While there exist certain hard drive security codes designed to prevent unauthorized access to the hard drive of a computer, they serve only to protect the data on the hard drive and do not prevent the use of a stolen computer if the data on the hard drive is sacrificed.
What is needed is a system for providing computer access to a school classroom environment, which solves the problems of cost, safety, reliability and institutional structural limitations of the existing state of the art as described above.
The present invention provides a system and method which overcomes the above problems through the introduction of a central electrical power and network signal distribution device, a central management server device, a special cable device, and simplified computer devices designed to minimize cost.
According to one feature of the present invention multiple simplified computing devices are provided. These devices include only the essential display screen, motherboard and keyboard components. A preferred embodiment of a computing device used with the invention omits such items as hard drive, floppy drive, CD-ROM drive and power supply. The computing devices receive electrical power and network data signals through a single composite cable from a central power supply/network hub to which each computing device is connected. One or more remote and/or local servers are provided for furnishing applications, data, storage and data access.
The central hub includes connection terminals that provide the power and network signals necessary for multiple computing devices to operate. Each computing device according to the invention thus requires only a single connection to electrical line power and a single connection to the building data trunk or local server. Alternatively, for field use the computing devices can be powered by a mobile power source such as a 12V wet-cell battery, with a portable (laptop) computer being used as a server.
The simplified computing devices of the invention having no power supplies or data storage devices, are not stand-alone devices and are therefore virtually useless to anyone not having the external power supply or data server. The power supply/network hub device can be designed to be securely mounted to a wall and/or floor from inside the cabinet or housing of the hub device, with access to the cabinet being locked.
In particular, the present invention provides